Muchacho Polaco

package from Cuba!

Posted on August 24, 2009 by Ryann

I came home to find a sweet surprise waiting for me – a package from Switzerland with a box of 25 Cuban Diplimaticos #2 Torpedos. How sad for Matt should he think these are coming home with Dana (she arrived tonight).

Posted in cigars | 3 Comments

Slaughter at Catan

Posted on August 8, 2009 by Ryann

On Thursday we were invited over to Bob and Beth Miner’s house for dinner and games. The food was muy buena! After dinner we decided to play a round of Settlers – a game which I am always sacrificially willing to give free lessons.

It was readily apparent that Ben had the most to learn from my skills and although I tried to instruct him the fundamentals of Settlers’ Theory, he struggled brutally for most of the game.

Posted in friends | 8 Comments

ridiculously funny

Posted on August 7, 2009 by Ryann

I found this site below through Ben – it is a compilation of various Olan Mills photos with commentary.

http://listoftheday.blogspot.com/2007/09/great-olan-mills-photos.html

Just a typical afternoon down on the plantation. In a business suit. Y’know, for a budget meeting with the slaves.

Olan Mills Backdrop #11: The Library, one of their most popular themes, as seen in this photo of the young Unabomber and his wife.

The Library might be more believable if the shelves weren’t sloping downhill

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hiking up Mt Lemon

Posted on August 1, 2009 by Ryann

Yun and decided to escape the heat today by driving up Mt Lemon for a hike. It was in the low 80s (about a 30 degree difference from Tucson). We took the dogs with us, equipped with Scout’s new backpack. Now he can carry his own stuff.

We found a nice trail near the place we camped last time we were up there. We hiked it for a few miles and found it not to be too terribly difficult. There was some wildlife to see and a lot of wildflowers.

Here’s a picture of a bird I suspect is a hawk. There were quite a few of them circling over us.

We had plenty of large rocks to stop and rest on.

I had also found a bunch of wildflowers to take photos of:

We also found some plants that we dug up and brought home with us. One was a prickly pear cactus and the other was something that looked like an Iris. I am about to go plant them pots now. There’s nothing like free plants!

Posted in scout!, tila!, weekend getaways | 2 Comments

resurrected IPOD

Posted on August 1, 2009 by Ryann

I stumbled across a web site this morning looking for the dead IPOD icon (see above) that had manifested itself on my 3rd generation yesterday on my way home from work. Having read Apple’s worthless information online and various other sites, I was getting desperate as nothing was working.

The remedy offered on this Portugese blog was to drop your IPOD on the ground (after having tried a few other suggestions). Despite Yun’s pessimism toward this particular method, I went and smacked my player against my hand (I couldn’t quite bring myself to drop it on our tiled floor) and to my surprise, it began working again!

Posted in casa | 6 Comments

swimming pool!

Posted on July 19, 2009 by Ryann

It was scorching earlier (110+ degrees!) so Yun and I stopped to pick up a little pool for the backyard (see photo from the box above). We had one last summer which I enjoyed for a few days before the dogs ate it. This one is a bit bigger and we are hopeful it will last a bit longer. We bought it at Walmart for $50.00. It is 8 feet wide and nearly 3 feet deep – holding 650 gallons of water. It also comes with an electric filter which may prove helpful to remove dog hair.

The pool was much more complicated to put together than expected. As we were in the process of putting it together, the clouds rolled in and it is now raining (free water!). The photo below was taken with my polarizing lens.

Posted in casa | 4 Comments

morning at the range

Posted on June 20, 2009 by admin

I went to an indoor range this morning with Ben and Jeff. It was great to be able to shoot my new glock given that I have had it for quite a few months now. The cost of ammo for a .40 is still ridiculously expensive (over 40 cents a round), so the possibility of reloading exists for future shooting. I am not thrilled with the indoor range. It is a lot louder than the outdoor range. I do like the electronic retrieval on the targets though. This particular range was $10 for the day. For $9, you can use their guns (as many different varieties as you wish). I might do this prior to purchasing any more hand guns.

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pizza and carne asada

Posted on June 7, 2009 by admin

Ben and Lis came over on Friday night for some homemade pizza that was cooked on the grill. It was surprisingly good! Yun tells me they cook much faster than in the oven and in my opinion they taste a lot better than when they are cooked in the oven.

On Saturday night, we went to Jesus and Krystal’s house for Jesus’ graduation party. There was mariachi and carne asada (same taco guys that did Yun’s b-day party). It was awesome. Jesus made some ridiculously good margaritas.

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thai dinner at Ross and Susie’s

Posted on June 5, 2009 by admin

Yun and I were invited over to Ross and Susie’s for some awesome Thai food last night. Matt and Dana, who have been staying with us for the last few weeks, were there along with Ben and Lis. It was Ben’s birthday yesterday as well and the dinner was certainly a great way to celebrate. Susie doesn’t mess around with the spices.

After dinner we had a chance to smoke outside. Matt had brought me a sweet Cuban Romeo y Julieta that I had enjoyed immensely. I have smoken a lot of cigars in the last couple weeks – probably more than I have smoked in the last couple years. My humidor holds over 200 and I have hoped to clear it out for some time – it’s nice to actually make progress on that front.

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diving SC

Posted on May 24, 2009 by admin

We woke early this morning to head out for some diving and snorkeling. Krystal was my diving partner and is master diver certified. The water temperature was ideal (with a shorty) and the visibility was not too bad (about 15 feet).

There was a rich diversity of sea life. The first interesting thing we saw was a large porcupine puffer fish. We saw one washed up on the shore yesterday, but seeing one swimming around was neat. We saw another one later in the dive as well.

Another first for me that we saw was a green moray eel. It looked a lot like an underwater snake and as we chased after it, it seemed to turn and hiss (silently) at me. It was probably the most interesting thing I saw today.

We saw a lot of beautiful fish – like the opal eye fish, bright yellow snapper, cortez angelfish, and a few sting rays. Krystal pointed out a really cool looking nudibranch which are small and easy to miss.

I came to realize what an air hog I am – I consumed 1000 psi more air than Krystal on the same dive.

Yun and I seem to see a lot of dogs on beaches lately – here’s one we saw today:

Posted in friends, scuba, Uncategorized, weekend getaways | Leave a comment